


Meet In the After Awhile

by tabulaxrasa



Series: World War I AU [2]
Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - World War I, F/M, M/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-18
Updated: 2009-11-18
Packaged: 2017-10-21 22:13:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabulaxrasa/pseuds/tabulaxrasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Mikey and Alicia's wedding! The nurses are in charge, Mikey has no idea what's going on, Gerard is a cowardly bitch, Frank sets a boat on fire, and Pete has the booze. It's like the war hardly ended at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet In the After Awhile

**Author's Note:**

> Title from ["Till we Meet Again"](http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/tillwemeetagain.htm) by Raymond B. Egan and Richard Whiting.
> 
> And a big fat muchas gracias to Stevie for looking over this for me. ♥

One Year Later

~*~

Apparently Gerard and Frank had set the boat on fire, which was the sort of behavior you could only expect from Frank. Gerard had never set anything on fire before, though. Frank was obviously a bad influence.

"It seriously wasn't our fault," Gerard complained. "It was the ship's lamp! And it rolled off the desk, there this was this big wave—"

"And it went on the desk, we didn't move it—" Frank interrupted.

"Exactly!" Gerard resumed. "So there was this _huge_ wave that rocked the ship and everything fell over."

"We fell out of bed!"

"We did! Everyone did! And it could have been anyone! With the lamp, I mean. And they got mad at _us,_ when it was their stupid lamp that set the curtains on fire."

"And we had to switch cabins," Frank added.

"And they tried to blame us 'cause we had the lamp on or whatever, and I told them they shouldn't have such flammable curtains! Or lamps that fall over with the first tiny swell!"

Mikey was almost choking, trying not to laugh. They were so indignant about the whole thing. It wasn't like Frank setting things on fire was a surprise, or anything.

They were driving to the Way house from New York, where he'd picked up Gerard and Frank fresh off the boat. Mikey was glad he'd convinced his mom to wait at home and his dad to go to work. There wouldn't have been room for them _and_ all of Frank and Gee's luggage.

Frank was alternating between hanging out the window and bouncing around, pushing Gerard into Mikey; and Gerard was waving his hands in Mikey's face as he talked; Mikey was trying to drive; the Model-T's front seat wasn't really big enough for three, and it was all so familiar it was ridiculous. Mikey wouldn't say it out loud, but he was relieved to see Frank acting like himself again. After the tunnel incident Frank had been much quieter, which was just _weird._

Frank asked questions Gerard and Mikey couldn't answer about things they passed as they drove, and he was starting to look a little nervous by the time Mikey finally pulled into the driveway. It didn't stop him bounding out of the car, though. Mikey went to help Gerard with the luggage, by which Mikey opened doors while Gerard carried stuff in.

"So…" Gerard said, looking shifty, "what did you tell mom and dad about Frank?"

Mikey folded his arms. "I told them he's our friend, and he's coming to the wedding. I also told them you wouldn't have a problem sharing a room."

Gerard's smirk collapsed when Mikey didn't continue. "That's all?"

Mikey frowned. "He's your boyfriend, you tell them." Speaking of… Frank had disappeared. Mikey left Gerard tugging at the suitcases and went into the house. Sure enough, Frank was already inside, holding Donna's hand and demanding to see the real Madame Way, because this one was far too young to have two grown sons.

And somehow, Donna was totally buying it, blushing and giggling. How did that work on women? His mom knew better! Mikey decided it was probably Frank's accent. Gerard was going to have to get Frank a muzzle for the wedding; there would be a lot of unmarried females floating around.

"Much too young, and far too beautiful," Frank added when he saw Mikey, "to have such ugly sons."

Donna laughed and Mikey rolled his eyes. He noticed Frank didn't say the ugly line when Gerard could hear.

"This is Frank Iero," Mikey gestured weakly at Frank.

"I know that, honey," his mom said with a laugh.

"You think I just jump on _les femmes_ without introducing myself first?" Frank pretended to be injured. Mikey thought that sounded _exactly_ like something Frank would do. "I don't know what kind of manners you acquired in the war, _Michel_ Way, but that's not how a gentleman behaves. And I know that's not what your mother taught you." The little bastard _winked_ at Donna, who laughed again.

"You are sweet," she gushed. At least Gerard came by it honestly.

Gerard finally came in, just in time, because Mikey was seriously about to throw up.

"Gerard!" Donna cried. She abandoned Frank to rush at Gerard, who dropped two suitcases and something that looked suspiciously like a lady's hatbox to catch her.

"Hi, mom," he murmured. He was definitely tearing up.

Donna hugged him, kissed him on both cheeks, and then shook him. "What in hell kept you away for an extra year? After all that! Oh, let me look at you." She pushed him back a little, hands still on his shoulders. "Well," she said with obvious reluctance, "at least it seems like you've been eating once in awhile." She was clearly disappointed that she couldn't complain about him not taking care of himself.

Gerard looked embarrassed, and Frank was beaming. "My mother's a very good cook!" he said.

Donna looked taken aback, and looked back and forth at Frank and Gerard. "You went to see Frank's parents?" she asked.

 _Uh-oh._ Mikey started sidling toward the door, mumbling something about the rest of the bags.

Gerard and Frank exchanged a wide-eyed look. "W-well," Gerard stammered. "They do live in France. And I told you we went to Corsica…"

Mikey beat it out of there and loitered by the car until Frank came out a few moments later, looking like he'd just had a narrow escape.

Mikey didn't feel too sympathetic, considering for a year he'd been dealing with his parents' complaints about Gerard not coming home. It was easy to hold them off when Gerard was busy working at the Paris Peace Conference, but those three months loitering in Corsica were harder to explain. Gerard owed him so, so much.

"Did you abandon him?" Mikey asked with fake disapproval.

"He told me to save myself while I still could. _Sacré._ I didn't know what I set off."

"Aren't you used to that?" Mikey asked. Frank shoved him good-naturedly, and they dragged the rest of the luggage into the basement.

~*~

(Mikey's conversation with his parents about Gerard and Frank had gone like this:

 _"So Gerard's definitely coming home for the wedding," Mikey said._

 _"Thank the Lord," his mom said._

 _"About time," his dad said._

 _Mikey fiddled with the letter. "And, uh—" Mikey was going to_ kill _Gerard— "he's bringing his friend. You know, Frank?" Every other sentence of every letter was only about Frank. Although those were the letters to Mikey; Gerard wrote separate letters to his parents. He better have at least mentioned him. All he'd written to Mikey was_ "Please explain about Frank." __

 _His mother blinked. "Oh yes. I think Gerard's mentioned him. He's coming?" She raised an eyebrow._

 _"Well," Mikey said, reflexively defensive, "he's my friend too." Although maybe Mikey should be careful about how he used the word "friend" right now._

 _Donna frowned, busy off in mom wedding-planning land. "I don't know where we'll put him," she mused. "I guess it'll have to be the hotel."_

 _"Oh, uh," Mikey interrupted quickly. "He can stay with Gerard. They won't mind." Really._

 _His mother's face looked hopeful. "Really? Well, that would be convenient."_

 _And that was as much as Mikey was willing to do. Gerard could stop being a cowardly bitch and explain about his boyfriend himself.)_

~*~

It turned out that the lady's hatbox really was a lady's hatbox; they'd brought Alicia a present from Paris. Alicia had come over for dinner, as she always did, and hugged and kissed Frank and Gerard with enthusiasm. "I don't get a present?" Mikey asked, feeling a bit hard done by.

"We like Alicia," Frank said, and stuck his tongue out.

"Yeah, Mikey," Alicia said. "They like me." She turned to flash him a brilliant smile from where she was admiring her new hat in the mirror. Mikey thought this was kind of ridiculous, considering the way Alicia had sat on Frank until he'd allowed her to examine his shoulder (she'd clucked, which turned out to mean Frank still didn't have full range of motion in his shoulder, which Frank had _known,_ as he didn't hesitate to point out once Alicia was on the other side of the room).

Mikey was kind of put out about not getting a new hat, too. Alicia loved hers; she kept cooing over it.

"I can't believe you didn't bring me a present," Mikey said, kicking loosely at Gerard's leg. "I'm your brother."

"Who says we didn't?" Gerard said around a yawn.

"Well where is it?"

Gerard waved a vague hand. "Dunno. Could be anywhere, really."

"Maybe it burned in the fire," Frank shot from where he was nominally in a conversation with Gerard and Mikey's father; in reality, their dad was doing a lot of talking and Frank was doing a lot of wide-eyed nodding. He looked pretty intimidated. Mikey felt a pang of sympathy; he'd actually thrown up the first time he'd met Alicia's parents.

Frank and Gerard did pretty well until nine o'clock. Then they both started slumping and didn't seem to know what time it was anymore. Donna sent them down to bed.

Mikey drove Alicia back to her boarding house. The night was frosty but clear, and the moon gave off plenty of light to see by. Alicia's landlady was scary so they sat in the car and let one goodnight kiss turn into many.

Eventually Mikey had to gently push her away and return to his side of the car. "I can't believe we're going to be married soon," Alicia whispered. "It still seems like a dream, or a film. Something happening to someone else."

"Is that good or bad?" Mikey asked.

Alicia shrugged. "I don't know what it means." She took Mikey's hand and squeezed. "Seriously, Mikey, it's good. All good."

"Too good?"

Alicia grinned, a quick flash of light. "I can't believe it's happening to me, so good. Good night!" She leaned over and kissed him too quickly for Mikey to get it together and respond, and she jumped out of the car and ran up the garden path. On the porch she turned and waved, like she always did, and then the boarding house swallowed her up.

~*~

They had a week until the wedding. Mikey had been under the impression that all the hard parts were done— the venue chosen, catering ordered, invitations sent, clothes lacking only final alterations. He thought this last week would be spent with Gerard and Frank and the other guests as they came in, running around New Jersey and New York while reminiscing about running around France.

It turned out that Mikey had never been so wrong in his life.

His mother informed him that Mikey would be doing plenty of running around, but not any place exciting. There were, somehow, a million small things to do. First, Mikey had to take his dad to work in the morning, because Mikey would need the car later. That was much earlier than Mikey wanted to get up. Then he had to go to the bakery, before he could even go home again. Mikey was especially annoyed when it turned out the bakery stop was for the benefit of Frank and Gerard's breakfast and not the wedding.

"Why can't Gerard do this?" Mikey complained. Gerard and Frank had woken up obscenely early anyway, something to do with time zones. Mikey knew what time they'd gotten up because they'd run upstairs to jump on Mikey's head.

"Gerard just got home!" Donna sounded scandalized. "And he has a guest!"

Mikey swallowed his protests about Frank being a _guest,_ even though that was ridiculous— it was _Frank_ — and did as his mother told him.

"You have to go to the stationer's and you have to go to the candy store, and the haberdasher's—"

"I don't even know where that is," Mikey protested.

Donna gave him a Look. "Then it's about time you found out, isn't it?"

Gerard and Frank volunteered to go to the candy store, of course, but that was one trip Mikey wasn't skipping. They picked up the three pounds of sweets Alicia had selected for wedding favors, and then bought another half-dollar's worth of candy for themselves. They picked up name cards and packets of ribbons and gauze (although the shop girl glared at Mikey when he called it gauze) and, after all this embarrassing shopping, they finally got to have lunch.

Donna made Mikey sit down with her and the calendar and plan out the rest of the week, while Gerard and Frank produced some fake yawns and said they were going to take a "nap." Donna suggested one of them should go nap on one of the other beds, to get some space to stretch out in. Obviously this led to Gee and Frank making extra-hilarious panic faces and flailing a bit because they didn't know what to say. Frank excused himself and ran off, leaving Gerard to mumble nonsense before running away himself.

That was actually pretty close to being the highlight of Mikey's day, since he had to duck under the table so his mom wouldn't see him laughing. When he came back up, Donna was frowning after Gerard. "They must be more worn out from the journey than I thought," she said. Mikey ducked back under the table. "Nap" Mikey's ass.

Mikey was exhausted by supper, and he hardly got to talk to Alicia at all. She and Donna spent the entire evening planning some sort of complicated campaign. Guests were going to begin arriving in earnest, and they had to figure out who could go meet whom at the train station.

"This is terrifying," Frank remarked to Mikey as the men huddled together out the way. "I had no idea."

"Nurse Ballato's coming in tomorrow to be Alicia's Maid of Honor," Mikey said, rubbing his eyes. "And Pete's coming in tomorrow, too, but he decided to drive."

" _That's_ terrifying," Gerard said. "I can't believe you invited Pete Wentz to your wedding. Or that someone let him have a car."

Mikey frowned, a little hurt. "What? He's my friend." Gerard ruffled Mikey's hair.

~*~

Mikey drove Alicia to the train station the next day. The train was 15 minutes late, but Lindsey was one of the first people off, pushing a fat businessman out of her way with a fake smile. The girls shrieked and hugged each other, and Mikey got a kiss on the cheek. "I hope your trip went well, Nurse Ballato."

Lindsey and Alicia laughed at him. "You can call me Lindsey now, Mikey," Lindsey said.

"Oh," Mikey said, "okay." It had taken him a long time in the first place to realize who Alicia meant when she talked about "Lindsey." He dropped the girls off at Alicia's boarding house and definitely wasn't invited in.

When he got back home, there was a bright purple Pierce-Arrow parked in front. Pete must be here.

Mikey heard Pete's donkey laugh as soon as he stepped inside, and he followed the sound to the living room, where Pete was sitting with Gerard and Frank. They were all being fed cookies and coffee by Donna, and Mikey really had got the bad end of this deal.

Pete's face lit up when he saw Mikey and he jumped up. Mikey felt the grin on his own face. Pete ran over and hugged him so tightly Mikey was lifted off his feet. "Mikeyway!" Pete shouted in his ear. "It's so good to see you. I can't believe it! You look corking, by the way."

"It's tip top to see you too," Mikey said, and he meant it. Pete looked much better than he had during the war. His eyes were sparkling and his grin seemed easy. His shoulders weren't all hunched up anymore.

They sat down and Pete curled up next to Mikey. Pete had only just arrived, it turned out. "I saw your car," Mikey said. "The cabaret must be going well."

Pete beamed. "It's so good. I had no idea. It's the best thing in the world, seriously. I'm so lucky. And yeah, the money's coming in steady enough." He winked.

"Who ended up there?" Gerard asked.

"Well Patrick, obviously, and Hurley and Trohman, my Lieutenants. And recently—" he hesitated, and there was the flicker of a shadow— "well, Sergeant Beckett, and Sergeant McCoy, and they brought Gabe Saporta with them."

Mikey laughed. "Crazy. So you must be having a lot of fun."

"Yeah," but Pete's smile was forced. Mikey and Gerard exchanged a look, but Mikey didn't know what to ask.

"Oh, hey," Pete said, bright and happy again. "You know Private Brendon Urie, who went to Germany with us?"

"Oh yeah."

"The one with or without the broken leg?" Frank asked.

"Without. He's in pictures now!" After the exclamations of surprise and delight died down, Pete continued. "Yeah, he's gonna play in a new _Last of the Mohicans_ film."

"Seriously?" even Gerard was very impressed.

"Yes. I mean, it's a small part, since it's his first, but he's on the way, you know?"

"Did he go out to California intending to go into pictures?" Mikey asked.

"I don't think so. That was just where they all went, that whole unit together."

"The sardines?" Gerard said.

Pete laughed. "That's as good a name as any. Spencer Smith's on the film too, doing some sort of production thing." They spent a few minutes discussing how amazing it would be to see someone they knew in a moving picture.

"So why did you decide to drive?" Mikey asked eventually.

"I had too much to bring," Pete smiled sweetly, or what passed for sweetly with Pete.

"What does that mean?" Gerard narrowed his eyes.

"My car is filled with things I didn't want any authorities to see." Pete waggled his eyebrows.

Mikey blinked. "You mean… booze?"

"Mikey," Pete said, pretending to be crushed. "I'm a bootlegger. You think I'd show up to your wedding empty-handed?"

"Hey," Gerard said. "We brought champagne too!"

"But just three bottles," Frank said.

"We had to swap the labels," Gerard explained. "Which is harder than it looks."

"Olive oil," Frank added. "The new labels are for olive oil."

"Customs didn't check?" Pete asked, impressed.

Gerard shrugged. "We declared them as olive oil. And packed them up well. The customs guys weren't very smart. Or they're not used to this yet. Or lazy."

Pete leaned towards them. "Could you do this on a regular basis?"

"Fuck no," Gerard said.

"Gerard was a nervous wreck," Frank added. Gerard shoved him. Frank just laughed.

"Well I've got some wine," Pete said. "Red and white. And whiskey. Whiskey-ish, anyway. It's kind of homemade, but it's very good, I promise!" Pete beamed. "And there's some rum-stuff too. Nothing but top-notch, top-shelf for you, Mikeyway!"

"You are a good man, Pete Wentz," Frank said fervently.

Frank and Pete both burst into laughter. Mikey looked back and forth at them. How had he never noticed the resemblance before? Jesus Fucking Christ, it really did run in the family.

 

They brought in Pete's crates of "candlesticks" and stacked them in the cellar part of the basement. Pete was going to get the guest room upstairs, so Mikey took him up there after that. He sat on the bed and watched Pete sling things around and shake out his wrinkled suits.

Pete sat next to Mikey on the bed. "There, that's good enough. Thanks for letting me stay here."

Mikey shrugged. "You came all this way." He leaned back and put his feet in Pete's lap. "How's the Patrick Project going?"

Pete sighed, but it wasn't an unhappy sigh. It wasn't blissful, either, it was some complicated in-between thing. "I don't know what I'm doing, Mikey. Sometimes it seems like I'm doing the right thing, and then I'll do something else and mess it all up. One step forward and three back."

"Trying too hard?"

"Probably," Pete smiled ruefully, and it was the sort of self-depreciation Mikey was so familiar with from Pete. "I should probably back off and just give it time, but… I can't." He waved his arms around in something that might have been despair, or maybe there was a fly. "I intend to, I totally intend to, but I'll forget myself. I can't help it! He's just so… and I'm…" Pete gestured.

Mikey nodded slowly. He did get it. "So nothing's really changed?" he asked with a sly smile.

He was surprised when Pete looked thoughtful. "I wouldn't say nothing's changed," he said. "I just don't know how much, or how much further things can change." Now he did give the wry smile Mikey'd been expecting. "Things can't stay this way, though. It's not fair to either of us."

Mikey thought it was good that Pete recognized that. Kind of mature, really. "I'll kick his ass if he breaks your heart," Mikey offered.

Pete laughed and patted Mikey's leg. "Thanks, buddy. But if anyone but me touches my Patrick for any reason, I'll kill 'em."

Mikey laughed and sat up. "Come on, we better go back downstairs. There's probably 15 different things I'm supposed to be doing."

~*~

Pete's car made things a bit easier. Gerard and Frank took Donna to pick up extra plates from somewhere in the Way car, and Mikey got to drive Pete's ridiculous purple car. It was faster than the Model T, and it got them a lot of attention.

Mikey borrowed it to pick up Alicia and Lindsey for dinner, and they were suitably impressed, or possibly a little horrified. That made for eight people in the Ways' tiny dining room; there was elbowing going on, some of it actually unintentional. Mikey thought his parents seemed a bit overwhelmed. Mikey conceded that Frank, Pete, and Lindsey all together in a small space was a bit difficult to take if you weren't used to them. Not to mention the in-jokes, teasing, and references to people and places they'd never known.

On the whole, it was best that his parents went to bed early. The party carried on downstairs without them, although they did a pretty good job of staying quiet, except for when Gerard spilled juice on Lindsey's skirt, and to get even she reminded him about the time he'd proposed to her. Gerard was mortified and Frank not even slightly amused. Pete, on the other hand, was on the floor laughing. Because he was a bootlegger with no class, as Gerard reminded him.

They all made up before the girls went home that night— at midnight, much later than they should have stayed. Pete drove, singing a ridiculous song very badly, swerving the car across the road to make the girls scream from the backseat. Mikey was still chuckling on the way home, leaning his head against the window as he watched Pete drive. With a smaller audience, Pete was driving responsibly, but he was still humming off-key.

Mikey wasn't used to driving with Pete, and if he thought about it, it was weird. "Without the war, we wouldn't know each other," he noted.

Pete's eyes widened and he glanced at Mikey. "Bizarre, isn't it? Without the war I wouldn't know _Patrick._ " He shook his head.

"I wouldn't know Alicia," Mikey realized. Somehow it had never occurred to him that he might not have met Alicia. He couldn't even imagine that. "And we wouldn't know Frank. Huh. You know, I have no idea what I would have done if I hadn't gone to France."

"No plans pre-war?"

"Not really," Mikey shrugged. "There wasn't anything I really wanted to study at school. I was just going to go where Gerard went, I think."

"Well you did," Pete pointed out.

"And it worked out okay," Mikey said. "So I guess that was a good plan."

~*~

Mikey really, really tried to sleep in the next day, but it wasn't allowed. He probably shouldn't have stayed up an extra hour with Pete after they got home last night, drinking and listening to stories from Angels & Kings.

His head was pounding, and Mikey was focused on drinking coffee so he didn't quite catch what his mother was saying.

"That Lindsey seems like a nice girl," she said.

"Um," said Mikey. "Nice" wasn't the first word that came to mind. "Scary" was much closer. "I guess," Mikey said.

"Do you think Gerard's going to settle down now?" his mother asked, apparently out of nowhere. "I mean, has he said anything to you about moving back here?"

"They brought enough luggage to be moving," Mikey grumbled. Privately, he thought that Gerard was pretty well settled. His mother frowned but went back to cooking eggs for his father.

Mikey hadn't thought about Gerard and Frank moving to the States, but he supposed it was possible. Gerard had been working for the State Department before. He probably could again.

"Would you please go wake up Gerard and Frank?" his mother said. "This is all the time I have for making breakfast. We have to check over all the tablecloths."

Mikey swallowed the rest of his coffee and went downstairs. He knocked carefully at Gerard's door.

"What the fuck?" Gerard mumbled, when he finally answered. And then: "You didn't bring coffee?"

"I was up later," Mikey complained.

"You don't know," Gerard responded.

"I was up until two."

"I don't know what time I went to sleep," Gerard said, "because—"

"Please don't finish that sentence," Mikey said quickly. "You win. You're an asshole, anyway. I came down to get you for breakfast. And to warn you."

Gerard blinked. "Warn me? About what?"

"I think mom wants to fix you up with Lindsey." Mikey was definitely not above enjoying the horrified look on Gerard's face.

He shot a frightened glance behind him and edged out of the room, closing the door behind him. "What the fuck?" he whispered. "Again, _what the fuck?_ "

Mikey shrugged. "That's the impression I got. Maybe now you'll _stop being a cowardly bitch_ and tell her, instead of letting Frank find out and tell everyone when he gets mad."

Gerard looked so anxious and miserable that Mikey started feeling sorry for him. "I will, okay, I will! Just— I just thought I'd wait until after the wedding, you know, in case… in case anything went wrong. And I didn't want to steal your thunder, or anything." Gerard tugged on Mikey's shirt.

Now Mikey felt shitty about it. He wrapped an arm around Gerard's neck and tugged him in for a hug. "So okay," he said. "I get it. Thanks. I'll try and dissuade mom. And I could warn Lindsey, I guess."

"That would be _swell,_ " Gerard said, hugging him tightly.

"You might want to warn Frank, too," Mikey said as he pulled away. Gerard made a face that was tragic enough to get him in moving pictures, but nodded.

~*~

Frank and Lindsey's reaction to the whole thing was to start flirting whenever they were together, which just went to show that everyone Mikey knew was _insane._ Frank wasn't even really mad about any of it; Mikey could tell because Frank had yet to break anything. Frank was just using it as an excuse to make Gerard his slave, and if Gerard wanted to bring Frank breakfast in bed to make up for saying crazy shit while on opiates after he'd hit his head, well, Mikey wasn't going to interfere.

He didn't see what the big deal was, anyway; Lindsey wouldn't marry Gerard because she knew all about Frank. And okay, Alicia knew about Mikey and Pete, sort of, but there wasn't that much to know. They'd never been like Frank and Gerard— Frank and Gerard forgot other people existed _all the time,_ they were so over the moon sometimes it seemed like they really were on a different planet and everyone else was just a visitor. They were, for lack of a better word, _settled._

Pete and Mikey, on the other hand, had never really happened. Pete had followed him around reciting sonnets and Mikey had entertained the notion because no one had ever pursued him in such a big, determined way, and Mikey had been flattered and curious. They'd been attached at the hip for awhile and they'd made out a bit, because there wasn't much else to do, and it had been fun, but Mikey had already had his eye on Alicia and he started talking to her, and Patrick had shown up and completely turned Pete's head, and that had been that.

~*~

Alicia's parents came in and Mikey drove her to pick them up at the train station. He'd met them before but he was still nervous, and it made him turn down Pete's offer to borrow the purple monstrosity he called an automobile.

It was raining, although it was threatening to turn to slush. He gave the good umbrella to the Simmons and did his best to keep Alicia's head covered as they ran back to the car. They all went out for an awkward lunch. Alicia had to catch her mother up on the wedding planning, which left Mikey and Mr. Simmons to try and come up with things to talk about. Mr. Simmons talked baseball at him for awhile, and Mikey nodded along blankly. Then he asked Mikey about his brother. Mikey realized this was Mr. Simmons trying to help him out, but Mikey still didn't know what Gerard's future plans were, and it was hard to talk about Gerard when he always had to talk around Frank.

It was definitely slushing by the time they left the restaurant. Because they were in Jersey, it was extra gray and disgusting. They dropped Mr. Simmons at the hotel and went to the Ways' so the ladies could all go get their dresses fitted together. Once they'd left the house, Mikey went into the living room and collapsed on the couch with a sigh. Gerard, Frank, and Pete were playing some sort of card game that involved lots of jumping up and down. Mikey felt too tired to join in, but he was happy just watching them.

Alicia and Lindsey of course had dinner with the Simmons that night, and Mikey was feeling kind of put out about not getting any quality alone time with Alicia today. He'd only driven with her to the train station, and he'd been too nervous to properly enjoy it. Mikey was starting to wish he and Alicia had just eloped. He felt like he saw her less now than before they'd been engaged.

"You bastards are all lucky," Mikey said to Pete, Gerard, and Frank after dinner and after dipping into some of Pete's moonshine. "This wedding thing is the worst." They all glared at him, and Mikey started backpedaling. "I mean, I'm really happy to be marrying Alicia, you know? I just want to be _married_ already. We should have eloped. That would have been fine. It's all this family/friends/ societal expectations stuff that's a pain in the ass."

They were still glaring at him. Mikey replayed what he'd said. "Oh. Um, I mean…"

"I say we lock him outside," Frank said.

Mikey would've moved faster if he'd thought they'd actually _do it._ They locked the front door against him, and Mikey had to trudge around to the back. In his socks.

"I'm sorry!" he shouted when he got back inside. "I'm a thoughtless asshole! And I think I agree with the Temperance Movement: alcohol is vile. Get it away from me, Pete."

"You'll be forgiven if you make us hot chocolate!" Gerard shouted.

Mikey was pretty sure this was Pete's fault.

~*~

The next day was Thursday, which meant a bunch of people were coming in. In addition to aunts and uncles and other boring types, Dr. Bob Bryar showed up that morning. As soon as he walked in the door there were shouts of "Dr. Bob!" and "Boche!" and Alicia, Lindsey, and Frank were all hanging off him, which Mikey conceded was only fair, because after all, this was Bob.

"Ladies, please, one at a time," Bob said. "That means you, Iero. There's plenty of Bob to go around. Gerard has first shot."

"Whoo hoo," said Gerard, not moving from his chair.

"That's not fair," Mikey said. "I think I should have first shot."

"All right," Bob said. "Mikey has first shot." Mikey got his hug, then Alicia got hers, and then Frank jumped on Bob, hugged his head, and ran to sit on Gerard to prevent him from getting up. That ended in a ridiculous girly "wrestling match" on the floor, which was obviously just an excuse to grope each other.

Bob sighed. "It's nice to know some things don't change, even when you wish they would."

Once Gerard and Frank were separated and Bob allowed to sit down in his own chair with no one sitting on him (which took some time), he said "Schechter had to go to a meeting in New York but he's going to try and make it by Saturday. When's Toro coming in?"

"Tomorrow," Mikey said.

"Are we really going to meet his wife?" Bob asked.

"So he says," Mikey answered.

"I feel like we already know her," Gerard mused. "After that time we stole all Ray's letters and read them."

"When did you do that?" Frank demanded.

"Before I met you," Gerard reassured him.

"Yeah,' Bob said nostalgically. "He was so mad. That was funny."

Everyone agreed Toro had been hilarious.

~*~

They all split up for dinner— Alicia and Lindsey with the Simmons, and Gerard somehow talked his parents into going out to dinner. So the boys were left on their own. They made giant sandwiches and cracked open one of Pete's crates of "candlesticks."

Pete drank a lot and then told them about Gabe. "I don't know what to do," he moaned. "I want to kill people over it. I want to stick their heads on pikes in the village square and set them on fire. It's like they killed Gabe. And I can't do anything to them."

Bob quizzed him closely on Gabe's behavior, which left Mikey feeling sick. "It could be worse," was Bob's eventual verdict. "I've seen a lot less of people left after lobotomies."

"That is so fucked up," Gerard shuddered. Frank was clinging to Gerard's arm tightly, eyes wide. He nodded vehemently but stayed silent. Mikey thought Gerard and Frank must be thinking about how shell-shocked Frank had been. And how close they both were to being declared mentally ill basically all the time.

It really was fucked up, Mikey thought.

 

When the Ways got home from dinner they found the boys passed out in the living room. They shook Mikey awake.

"What is this," Mikey's father asked, amused. "Your bachelor party?"

Mikey flushed. "No, we just…" he waved a hand vaguely. His dad patted him on the shoulder and went up the stairs. His mother was still there, frowning thoughtfully as she looked at them. Or rather at Frank and Gerard.

From Mikey's point of view, they didn't even look particularly incriminating. Then again, Mikey was used to them, and if no one had their hand down someone else's pants, they were on good behavior. For his mother, it was probably a shock just to see Gerard sleeping on Frank, which was really the sort of thing that had happened quite innocently in the trenches all the time.

Mikey cleared his throat. "You go to bed," he told her. "I'll wake these degenerates up and send everyone to bed."

"You tell Dr. Bryar he's welcome to spend the night here if he doesn't want to go all the way back to the hotel tonight," she said.

"Yes, Ma." She gently stroked his hair and left, still frowning to herself.

Oh well, nothing to be done about that now.

Pete had somehow gotten a couch to himself, so Mikey kicked the couch until Pete stirred, then shoved Gerard and Frank. While they were all grumbling, Mikey gently shook Bob awake. "You can sleep on the couch if you want," he said once Bob seemed alert enough to process information.

"I'm so glad I payed for that hotel room tonight," Bob said.

Mikey grinned. "I'll get you some blankets."

~*~

Friday morning, Mikey drove Bob to the hotel and his dad to work before breakfast. He shoveled down an egg before he went out to drive his mom around. They were heading toward the train station, stuck in a combination of rain, lunch time traffic, and muddy roads when his mother spoke with uncharacteristic hesitation.

"Mikey… Gerard and Frank…"

 _Oh fuck no,_ Mikey thought. How the hell had Gerard weaseled out of this after all?

"They're very close, aren't they?" his mom said.

"Uh," Mikey said. "Yes." He began tapping nervously on the steering wheel. What the hell was wrong with the horses hitched to the carriage in front of them? Mikey just wanted to get to the train station so this conversation would have to stop.

To his surprise, his mother was silent for a while and just looked thoughtful. "Gerard seems happy," she said.

Mikey was even more surprised. He blinked. "Yeah," he eventually thought to say. "He is."

She nodded, as if that settled the manner. Mikey cautiously let himself relax.

Too soon. "When that McCracken boy got arrested…" she said. And wow, Mikey wanted to talk about Gerard and Bert even less than he wanted to talk about Gerard and Frank.

"Gerard wasn't involved in that," Mikey said firmly. Gerard had already gone to New York by that point, thank God, and it had still been a melodrama.

"No," she said. Then she finally seemed content to sit quietly and think about things on her own, or whatever, and traffic finally started moving.

~*~

Mikey forced himself into the telephone room where Pete was on his daily trunk call to Patrick. He sat on Pete's lap, because there wasn't really any other place to sit or stand.

"Say hi to Mikey, Patrick," Pete said, and held the ear piece up to Mikey's ear.

"What?" Mikey heard. "Pete?"

Mikey leaned toward the mouthpiece. "Hi, Patrick Stump."

"Mikey? Hello?"

Pete put the ear piece back against his own head. "I've got to go, Lunchbox. It looks like an emergency. Keep Gabe out of the jam. You should buy a new hat. Fare thee well, my favorite star. I miss you!"

"I hope that was sneaky bootlegger code," Mikey said.

"It wasn't," Pete said.

"Why Lunchbox?" Mikey asked.

Pete beamed. "Because he's full of delicious things! Why the cuddles? Not that I'm complaining, of course."

"I just had to have a conversation with my mother," he said. "About Gerard and Frank."

"Awkward!" Pete was enough impressed and horrified that Mikey felt justified.

"Yeah," Mikey said sourly. "How is that my job?"

Pete patted his head. "You're the normal one, buddy. Sorry."

"I don't know how that happened," Mikey whined.

"You're a grumpy Gus, considering you're getting married tomorrow." He pinched Mikey's thigh.

"Ow. I've hardly seen Alicia in days, that's why I'm grumpy."

Pete nodded seriously. "I understand. Dr. and Mrs. Toro are here, does that make you feel better?"

Mikey thought about it. "Yes."

"Then let's go see them. Also, you're crushing me. You're entirely bone, mister."

They got briefly stuck getting out of the 'phone room and ended up falling on the floor. When they went into the living room, Gerard immediately said "Was that you falling on the floor?"

"No," Mikey said.

"Yes," Pete said.

"I thought so," Gerard said. Mikey glared at him. Gerard looked taken aback. _Well, good,_ Mikey thought.

"Mikey!" Ray stood up and tried to shake Mikey's hand. Mikey hugged him. He did shake Mrs. Toro's hand, though, because she seemed too pregnant to have to get up. That explained why everyone was leering at Ray. Well, everyone leered at Ray all the time because it was funny, but now they actually had a reason.

"Now we're all here," Frank said with a great deal of slightly sinister glee.

 

Mikey managed to corner Frank and Gerard when everyone else was talking. "So mom asked me about you two."

Gerard's eyes bugged. "What did you say?"

Mikey shrugged. "She just sort of… I don't know. She seems okay."

Gerard relaxed.

"I told you so," Frank said, and smacked Gerard upside the head.

Mikey smiled.

"Sorry, Mikey," Gerard said. He gave Mikey a quick squeeze. "Thanks."

"Thanks, Mikey," Frank said, and hugged him too.

Mikey felt bad for being so put out about the whole thing. He shrugged. "She'll probably talk to you later. I didn't really… confirm much."

~*~

That night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and Mikey was ridiculously glad to see Alicia. He couldn't greet her properly because they were in a room full of parents, but he smiled at her and she smiled at him, and Mikey felt better. Just seeing her made everything else recede into unimportant background matters that were hardly worthy of his attention, let alone all that anxiety.

While the priest was explaining things, Alicia leaned into him. "I missed you," she whispered.

"I missed you too," he whispered. "So much." He reached out and gave her hand a little squeeze, which she just had time to return. He stood at the front of the aisle with Gerard, and Alicia practiced walking down the aisle with her father.

"It's real now," Gerard whispered, taking a break from making faces with Lindsey.

"No it's not," Mikey whispered back. "This is just practice."

Gerard tsked. "But it's real in that you're actually getting married tomorrow. _Tomorrow,_ Mikey!"

Mikey grinned. About fucking time, as far as he was concerned.

 

"Do you think it's too late to elope?" Mikey whispered to Alicia as they were on the way to the dinner.

She grinned. "I'm pretty sure our mothers would kill us." Mikey had to acknowledge that was true. "It's less than 24 hours now anyway," she reminded him.

Frank and Pete joined them for dinner, and it would have been weird for Mikey to see everyone around one table like that, but he was mostly just looking at Alicia. He didn't worry about their parents exchanging polite conversation, or Pete and Lindsey fencing with their breadsticks, or Gerard and Frank leaning too close as they whispered to each other in French. He was actually going to get to marry Alicia tomorrow, and that was all that mattered.

~*~

Pete insisted on a bachelor party that night, after dinner. They picked up Ray and Bob, and went to a speakeasy where Pete had already managed to make friends, despite not having any free time. Mikey drank rather more than he meant to, but people kept making toasts, including people Mikey had never seen before in his life, once word got out why they were there. They even got free drinks, after Pete casually (but loudly) mentioned they'd all met in France.

"You're amazing," Mikey said to Pete.

"I know!" Pete said, and smacked a kiss on Mikey's cheek.

Gerard, not drinking, kept an eye on the clock and eventually herded them all outside, where it started to snow.

"It's a Christmas miracle!" Pete shouted, flinging his arms wide.

"Shh," Ray thought he whispered. "It's not Christmas!" He was smooshed into Bob's shoulder, and they were both smiling, big and easy.

"Into the car, soldiers," Gerard said. "Ak Dum! Pete, gimme your keys."

It was a tight fit with all of them in the Pierce-Arrow, but the hotel wasn't far. Then Mikey got to sit in front with Gerard, while Pete and Frank sat in the back and sang "Mademoiselle from Armentiers", all 400 verses of it.

Mikey felt amazing. During a pause in the singing, while Pete and Frank argued over which verse to sing next, Mikey heard a little sniffle next to him.

Mikey looked at Gerard. "Are you crying?"

Gerard sniffed. "No. A little."

"Why?"

"Because you're getting married tomorrow! And moving out, and all of that!"

"You moved out years ago!"

"But you'll be married now. You can't come back. It's… it's just different. You'll have your own home now, instead of just somewhere you live."

Mikey hadn't really thought of it that way, he'd been mostly focused on the _Alicia_ part. "I guess so," he said.

When they got home he put Pete to bed. He thought about what Gerard had said and went downstairs to say goodnight. He found Gerard telling a story about gunfighters, so Mikey curled up at the foot of the bed and listened until he fell asleep.

~*~

He woke up the next morning stiff-necked, thick-headed, and with a cramp in what felt like every major muscle. He had no regrets. His muffled groaning and stretching woke Frank, who watched him with sleepy eyes for awhile.

"You used to do this a lot, didn't you?" Frank observed.

"Yeah, kind of," Mikey said. It could have been weird to have Frank there, but it wasn't, really. It just reminded Mikey of camping in the ambulance, and the three of them running all over the Front together after Frank got hurt. "Funny," Mikey said, keeping his voice low so Gerard could sleep, "how you can get good memories out of it." He knew Frank would know what he meant.

Frank did, and shrugged. "Nothing can always be bad. Nothing can always be good, either."

"Words to live by?" Mikey asked wryly.

"For your wedding day," Frank grinned and kicked at Mikey.

Mikey stood up and stretched all over again. "Go back to sleep," Mikey whispered. "I think it's still really early."

Frank murmured something in agreement and rolled over, pressing his face into Gerard's shoulder. Mikey didn't look back at them as he climbed the stairs; he didn't need to.

~*~

Mikey's favorite part of getting up that morning was going downstairs to find a hungover Bob Bryar at his kitchen table wrapping candy in tissue paper and carefully tying it with ribbon for wedding favors. Mikey grinned. "You are a great man, Bob Bryar."

"The greatest," Bob said. "Don't ever forget it. _I'm_ never going to forget it."

No one else was likely to forget it, either. When Frank came up and saw it, he laughed for five minutes straight, until Bob got up and chased him around. Gerard and Mikey laughed themselves sick, and Donna had to come and restore order, which left them _all_ wrapping wedding favors, trying to squeeze in bites of breakfast.

They had to set up for the reception, which including lots of driving between the house and Alicia's boarding house and the hall they were renting. Mikey didn't get to see Alicia, of course. Lindsey was her emissary. There were endless chairs to set up at the hall, which Bob was doing stoically while Frank was chastising Gerard for letting him drink so much the night before. Pete, of all people, was arranging place settings with fierce concentration, and Mikey smiled because these people were his family, and that was both startling and wonderful.

Brian Schechter showed up at about noon, when they were taking a smoking break, and yelled at them for slacking. He also said a bunch of stuff to Mikey that was almost sappy, for Schechter. Then Bob and Brian disappeared, and Lindsey came by with the name cards and seating charts. Mikey was helping put out the name cards when he noticed Frank and Gerard leaning all over each other and laughing, and if Mikey noticed it right now, it must be bad. "They're going to get arrested," he groaned.

Lindsey patted his shoulder. "You finish this, I'll take care of it." She stomped over, grabbed them by the scruffs of their necks, and marched them off to have a talk about the differences between America and the Continent.

Mikey really did love everyone today.

 

They went home to get dressed. Mikey put on his suit and didn't have anything else to do. He leaned his head out his bedroom door. He could hear his parents talking in their room, and Gerard and Frank singing somewhere below, and Pete shouting on the telephone to Patrick in Chicago. He really was going to miss this house. It was nice to have it so full.

He closed his door and checked his hair again, but it had been brillocreamed to an inch of its life and hadn't moved. There was a soft knock on the door. "Yes?"

It was Gerard and Frank. "We found your present," Gerard said and held out a small box, almost shyly. Frank was beaming and bouncing up and down.

It definitely wasn't a hat. It was in fact a watch, a very nice gold pocket watch and chain. It wasn't fussy but anyone could see the quality.

"Thank you," Mikey said, stunned.

"We had to kill a man to get it," Frank said. "A Boche."

"He means it came from Switzerland," Gerard said. "Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful," Mikey said. He hugged them both and put the watch on, carefully arranging the drape of the chain. "What do you think?"

"Perfect," Gerard said, and sniffed.

"Shh," Frank said to him. "It is perfect." They smiled and went back downstairs.

Mikey admired himself a bit more before there was another knock at the door. Pete didn't wait for a response before coming in, but stopped short a few steps in. "Wow," he said. "You do clean up well."

"So do you," Mikey smiled.

Pete put his hands in his pockets. "You're a lucky man," he said. "And Alicia's a lucky girl."

"I don't know about Alicia being lucky," Mikey said. "But I know I am."

"She is." Pete walked up right in front of him. "You look great," Pete said, carefully adjusting Mikey's tie. "Really great, Mikey." If there was any regret in Pete's face or voice, Mikey didn't see or hear it.

Pete smiled. "Let's go make an honest man out of you."

"Finally," Mikey said, grabbing his hat off the dresser. Pete laughed and followed him downstairs.

His mother got all teary when she saw him, and adjusted his hat and brushed lint off his shoulders that Mikey was pretty sure wasn't really there.

His father finally had to intervene. "All right," he said. "Time for us to get the groom to the church."

~*~

Mikey stood at the front of the church with Gerard and waved at people as they filled in the seats. He watched them talking to each other, not able to hear what they were saying. It seemed to take forever to start, even though his new watch told him it was right on time. Then it took forever for Alicia to come out. First came Lindsey, looking very nice but Mikey hardly saw her, craning for a view of Alicia the entire time. Finally, finally, she appeared on her father's arm.

Her dress was ivory, which he remembered dimly was the popular color that year, and her hair was swept up with flowers in it, and the veil made a cloudy halo around her head and Mikey had certainly never seen anything so beautiful in his life. He had no idea how he was being allowed to marry her; someone somewhere must have made a mistake. Mikey was incredibly grateful.

After that, it was a blur, with the priest droning on and Alicia shining across the aisle at him— he wondered if his smile was wider than hers. He repeated his vows carefully, and when Alicia spoke hers it felt like no one else was in the room. Gerard gave him the ring, taken off Alicia's finger that morning, so that the priest could bless it and it could be put back on Alicia's finger with brand new purpose.

And then Mikey got to kiss her in front of everyone and the priest presented them as "Mr. and Mrs. Michael Way" and that was it.

Mikey sort of re-noticed everyone around them. Gerard and Lindsey were both crying and smiling huge smiles. Both Mikey and Alicia's moms were crying, and all the aunts, and Frank was clearly trying to act like he hadn't been crying, now that Gerard was looking at him again.

Then they had to do the receiving line, which would have been awful except Mikey was so happy nothing could bother him. He beamed at everyone and nodded happily, no matter what they said. Frank went through it early so he could give Gerard and Lindsey fresh handkerchieves. Alicia gave him and Pete instructions, and they went off to start the reception as ordered.

Then they had to take pictures, which did get a little boring, but finally Mikey got to get in a carriage alone with Alicia.

"Hi, Mrs. Way," he said.

"Hi yourself, Mr. Way," she said, and kissed him.

He'd intended to talk to her on the ride over, because it felt like he hadn't for a week, but the kissing got a little out of hand and the ride wasn't very long.

They surveyed the damage so far: Frank had successfully stopped Pete from spiking the punch (until some of their more straight-laced relatives left, anyway) and Schechter was arguing with the band on their behalf.

"Is that my mother with the seating chart?" Alicia frowned.

"Who cares?" Mikey said, and twirled her around so that she laughed.

Lindsey squeezed Alicia's shoulder. "I'll check into it, honey. You sit down and have a good time."

This was good, because Mikey suddenly realized he was starving. He had barely had breakfast and hadn't had any lunch. Some of Gerard and Frank's smuggled champagne was used for the toast, which Gerard was clearly delighted to give.

Right after dinner Mikey's mother whispered "Your Uncle and Aunt Bernis have left."

"Is that my cue?" Pete asked hopefully.

"That's your cue," Mikey nodded.

Pete snagged Bob and Brian and Frank, and they set up the bar. Pete dumped a truly alarming amount of rum into the punch, and they passed out wine, and there was another champagne toast. The band all got whiskey as a thank-you-keep-your-mouth-shut, and the party really got going.

Mikey wished he'd practiced dancing more; he kept stepping on Alicia's train, even though she'd switched out the veil for her new Parisian hat. He was surprised to see that his dad was quite good at whisking Donna around the floor; Gerard seemed surprised too, and Mikey and Gerard traded grins. Mr. Simmons swung Mrs. Simmons around quite wildly, which just showed you never knew with parents.

There was a queue of girls who wanted to dance with Frank; Mikey didn't even know who all of them were. Eventually Lindsey took pity on Frank and hogged him for a few dances, and then Pete traded places and let Frank tend bar to give him a break. Gerard just seemed to find the whole thing hilarious. He didn't get out of dancing, either. Both Gerard and Frank had a dance with Alicia, and when Lindsey saw Gerard laughing at Frank she made him dance with her. Gerard politely danced with a couple other girls, but he and Frank managed to maintain eye contact the entire time, and it was kind of hot, in a totally disturbing and creepy way.

When they sat down to rest, Mikey had lost all track of time. Alicia took his watch and looked at it for herself. "I think we can leave soon," she whispered.

"Really?" Mikey perked up. Alicia giggled.

"Thirsty?" Pete said, putting down two glasses in front of them.

"What is it?" Mikey asked.

"God knows," Pete grinned and vanished.

Alicia picked up her glass, sniffed experimentally, then shrugged and took a large drink. "Urm!" she said, then swallowed. "Wow, that burns!" She tossed back the rest of the glass and Mikey, laughing, did the same.

They had to wait for the room to stop spinning before they could stand up to start saying their goodbyes. Alicia clung to his arm, giggling, as they found Mikey's parents and said goodnight. Donna hugged them tightly and kissed them.

Luckily, at this point most people were too drunk to waylay them as they crossed the room to Alicia's parents, which made for a nice change. Mikey hoped everyone was too drunk to notice Frank sitting on Gerard's lap feeding him cake. Actually, that probably wasn't the weirdest thing happening. Mikey had no idea where Pete was.

"Do you want to say goodbye to your brother and Frank?" Alicia asked.

Mikey thought about it. "Let's not," he said. They'd be embarrassing, and they seemed happy enough right now. They'd see them tomorrow, anyway.

They definitely had to say goodbye to the Simmons, though. Mrs. Simmons didn't want to let Alicia go, and Mr. Simmons was giving Mikey a very stern look. Alicia finally extracted herself from her mother's arms, gave her father a quick hug, and dragged Mikey off.

"She gave me the most embarrassing talk today!" Alicia whispered. "She seemed to be under the impression that I was much more closely supervised in France than we really were." She winked at Mikey. They really hadn't been supervised _at all,_ not even by Gerard, who had always been running off to have unsupervised time with Frank. "I couldn't bear to disillusion her. And I'm a nurse! It's not like… oh well." Alicia waved her hand in front of them, like she was erasing something. "I really hope to completely repress that memory, so let's not talk about it."

Mikey laughed. They slipped out of the hall at last. "There you are!" Pete shouted. "I fixed your carriage!"

The "Just Married" banner was actually quite nice, although all the shoes and tin cans cluttered it up a bit. Mikey had no idea what business the ham had hanging off the back; he was afraid to ask.

"Thanks, Pete," he said, and wrapped an arm around Pete's shoulders.

"All right, newlyweds." Pete pretended to have dust in his eye. "Be sure to get some _sleep,_ because we'll be outside your window bright and early tomorrow morning." Pete leered at them. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Alicia rolled her eyes, and Mikey said "They've yet to invent the thing you wouldn't do, Pete, so I think we're good. Thanks for everything," he added sincerely.

"Go on, get out of here!" Pete shouted.

Mikey handed Alicia up into the carriage. A few more people had got wind of the escape and came out to see them off; Mikey and Alicia waved goodbye until the road turned and they were hidden from view.

~*~

Mikey and Alicia spent the night in the hotel's bridal suite before leaving on their honeymoon the next morning. As Pete had promised, all their friends were outside their window to serenade them at an ungodly hour.

Mikey threw open the window, shivering in the cold and shouted down "Have you even been to bed yet?"

"Who needs sleep?" Pete shouted.

Mikey looked down at seven people all shivering in the snow for them at six a.m. All his life it had always been just him and Gerard, and he'd kind of thought that was the way it always would be. But now there was Alicia and Frank, and Pete and Lindsey, and Bob and Ray and even Brian, and this was what his family looked like now.

"You're crazy," Mikey said, smiling so hard his face hurt. "Get some rest."

~*~


End file.
